Saturday, September 24, 2011

Brussels Everyday Scenes - part I

In principle, every (working day) is looks pretty much the same for me. I get up in the morning, have my devotions, exercise, bathe and get dressed, and eat breakfast (not necessarily always in the same order). Then I catch the metro that takes me to my workplace. I'm so blessed to live just right around the corner of a metro station, and it's only 5 stops to get to my building in the EU quarter, so it rarely takes me longer than 20 minutes to reach my office.

Nevertheless, every day looks different (as for the weather anyways here in Brussels), as there are often interesting happenings and encounters. Thus, I have now made it a habit to always take my little camera with me in order not to miss anything worthy to be recorded.

On Friday for instance, I took the metro as I do every morning. In fact, I was quite late as I had a problem with my sciatica again and needed to see my chiropractor for this. So I took the metro around 10 AM, which was very pleasant, as the rush hour is over by then. Surprisingly, the first elder of the French speaking church was in there, and so I sat down and talked with him.

Then a musician came into the metro. Well, not a professional one, but there are definitely people in this city who have musical talents. However, the first aim of these particular individuals is not to show off their talents, but rather to "earn" a little money to make ends meet. So this man came in with his accordion and played while his little son was accompanying him with a small hand bell (by the way, I'm wondering now: shouldn't the boy have been at school around this time?). It sounded really pleasant. While he was still playing, the son collected the money. Of course, it's a voluntary contribution. Some people give, but most people don't. Nevertheless, I can well imagine that this kind of activity can bring in quite some additional income - depending on how many metros you enter!


I hope that young man in the middle doesn't mind that he is on the world wide web now. The woman to the right didn't seem to like the idea anyways. The elderly gentleman to the left is the elder from church - frère Gason.

Let's see if I can catch some more glimpses about my everyday life. I'm sure I will at some point.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the music. Frank

Barbara said...

What a very interesting snippet of life in a place far from my part of the world. Do share more.